Who's In Neil Frank

August 9, 1987|By Charles Fishman of the Sentinel Staff

This is the season when Neil Frank, former director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, used to come on TV and give gently dire warnings about hurricanes. That all ended when Frank, 55, retired June 1 to take a big- bucks job as meteorologist for Houston TV station KHOU-Channel 11.

But Frank is back on Florida TV screens, and in Florida newspapers, too.

He's endorsing hurricane shutters, in ads for Security Shutter of Venice. The firm grandly calls Frank its ''official spokesman.'' The plain-spoken Frank says, ''They asked me to stop by there on the way to Houston, and I've always been an advocate of hurricane shutters. . . . And they just make an excellent product. I would be very careful about what I endorse.'' Frank wouldn't say how much he was being paid, but: ''It's probably a lot less than you think.''